396
Trump rally comic reportedly tested racist Puerto Rico joke at comedy club
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
396 points (97.4% liked)
News
23367 readers
2633 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I’m a big supporter of comics being given leniency for offensive jokes, and if this guy had made that joke at a comedy club, I would not have had a problem with it, because the presumption is that it’s a joke—nothing is meant to be taken seriously.
But this was a political rally. Totally different situation. When you make jokes there, they’re understood to reflect the politician conducting the rally. And in this case, it did.
I hope Mr. Hinchcliffe never finds work as a comedian again. Not because he’s a bad comic, not because he might actually be racist against Puerto Ricans, but because he’s a catastrophically stupid human being.
While it's worse at a political rally, I don't think this is much better at a comedy club. Mostly because it's not really a joke; it's just offensive. Perhaps if there was some point he was trying to make beyond being racist, but it doesn't seem like it. It's only "funny" if you're already bigoted against Puerto Ricans.
I don’t know. There’s a type of joke that is funny simply because of how ridiculously offensive it is, provided you know the teller doesn’t mean it. People think Sam Kinison was funny and he just yelled and swore a lot. Lots of things can be funny for fairly stupid reasons.
I still think the main problem here is that he told a really offensive joke in the wrong context. If Hinchcliff really is racist then that’s obviously a problem, but I don’t think the joke itself is the issue. If you’re going to take issue with it on its own then you’re treading into the Offense Olympic waters.
I think context is key here. If you tell a Jewish joke at a Bar Mitzvah or comedy club it comes across entirely differently than if you tell it at a Skin Head or Proud Boys rally.
He told the this joke at a Trump rally where accusations of racism and facism abound. He was probably trying to be ironic but it just comes off far more serious than just a joke.
Fundamentally a rally should bring people together. The Trump team knew what they were getting when they hired this guy. Whatever this comedians intentions were, the Trump team is ultimately responsible for their message and to refuse to have Trump repudiate him publicly and immediately peaks volumes.
That's the important point. They don't get to back away and claim it just some random thing that some random guy said.
They knew exactly who this guy was, and they specifically invited him to speak on their stage in front of their audience.
If this guy genuinely went to this rally and was trying to make fun of this sort of racism by telling that joke (i.e., the joke is how stupid it is to believe that), then you would have a point. But I don't see any reason to believe that because he agreed to speak at a Trump rally. Context goes both ways.
I’m not personally familiar with Hinchcliff or his comedy, but what little I’ve seen from fans of his online seems to indicate that this is just his normal shtick. As such, I’m not sure I agree that he went out there to wave a Nazi flag at his fellow Nazis. It would make more sense to me that he took the gig because it paid well and offered him a ton of publicity. The irony is that he’s certainly gotten publicity, but probably not the type he wants.
I'm not seeing where I mentioned him being a Nazi.
I understand being charitable and not assuming bad in people. However, it's not exactly a mystery where Trump stands in this area. I'm a little doubtful this comedian is barely making rent, so this wasn't a gig he had to take. Since he did, he has to accept being part of that context. It was very easy to avoid.
If this ends up costing Trump the election, and Hinchcliff comes out saying that was his master plan, I'll gladly eat my words.
I inserted the Nazi part as a bit of hyperbole. I just meant the idea of him doing his bit intending to express actual racism for the yuks of actual racists.
I agree wholeheartedly that this was an idiot move on his part and that he deserves all the bad press he gets from it. I was just saying that—based on what his fans have said—I don’t get the impression he really hates Puerto Ricans. This was likely just a really dumb career move on his part.
I don't know. He got dropped by his agency and Joe Rogan (!!!) in the past for using a racial slur. When people show you who they are, believe them.
🤷🏻 Can’t say I’m surprised. Joe Rogan cancelling him seems kinda hypocritical though.
It made me double check if it was real because that sounds like the opposite of what you'd expect from JRE.
His schtick is offensive comedy. Jon Stewart covered it. https://youtu.be/cOLqSUK0eBM?t=4m54s
I think he will be murdered by Donald's cultists if the election goes bad for Donald. Just a hunch based on the fact that Repubs have been actively radicalizing domestic terrorists for decades.
Maybe one MAGA lunatic will try but a KKK lunatic will jump in front of the bullet to protect a fellow racist. One can dream.
He has a pretty big podcast
I also see clips from Kill Tony hawked a lot on YouTube, and the most this guy has going for him is he's a shock jock. Making a crass, low-hanging quip while grinning at the camera is hardly an indicator of a lofty comic personally, but I'm sure his popularity will continue after this.
I hope he gets an earful from his listeners then, and that they stop listening to him.
I doubt it
I doubt it haha
It'd be funny if it was just about grilling and craft beers with nothing spicier than a Full House (the original) joke, but I somehow doubt it.